Aryio, the God of Life

The god of life and creation in the Korinthian Pantheon. He is seen as a benevolent god that gives life where it is wanted. He created the First Race and helped shaped the world of Aurum.

Worshipers
The majority of Aryio's worshipers prior to their disappearance were mothers and druids. While he was revered by all good people, those that are actively doing good worship him particularly.

Followers of Aryio often took quests to oppose the schemes of Urios and to stop or destroy her followers.

Aryio accepts only clerics of good alignments. Whether they are kings, commoners, slaves, or other beings attracted to his philosophy, clerics of the Lifebringer always had to strive to take constant but subtle actions on behalf of good while trying to do as little harm in the process as possible.

Clerics were usually nurtured from birth, trained by a senior cleric, usually a parent or close friend of their parents, although it was not unusual that of any age heard the call of Aryio and sought out clerical training. As with any deity, those who wanted to become clerics of Aryio had to first acquire an appropriate holy symbol. This holy symbol became the most prized item of their items after that, as it was a symbol of their status in society and of the cleric's devotion to Aryio, and to lose it was considered a blasphemy. If a cleric didn't try to recover a stolen or lost holy symbol, he or she would lose their investiture. Usually one had to acquire his or her holy symbol on their own, but Aryio also bestowed a holy symbol someone he wanted to be his cleric.

The holy symbol used by clerics of Aryio was a small acorn (about the size of a human hand) usually made of wood or some other material made from life, although younger (and relatively poorer) commoners made theirs of their devices. They carried their holy symbol at all times, usually around their necks on a stout chain. One of the main goals of a cleric was to acquire their most preferred type of holy symbol; in the case of Aryio's worshipers.. In some instances, Aryio blessed some of his clerics for services rendered by upgrading their holy symbol to one made of living wood.

Aryio was known to work with his clerics more often than other deities, and he asked his clerics to oppose the greatest weaknesses of life, which in Aryio's point of view were the tendency questionable acts because of greed or cowardice, the chance to be subdued, and the existence of evil.

Like the clerics of the other deities, clerics of Aryio were expected to perform three key functions alongside any other tasks he asked them to do: to act as role models for other good people, to function as emissaries of Aryio in a given area, and to spread Aryio's will to others in that area while collecting sacrifices from Aryio's worshipers. Those sacrifices were usually a small part of their wealth, and clerics were allowed to take a small share of this sacrifice as well, making this third function the favorite of many clerics. Clerics are also expected to sacrifice a part of their treasure to Aryio once every year.

If a cleric transgressed Aryio's dogma, committed questionable acts, or was subdued, either voluntarily or by force, he or she would lose favor with him and would need to atone by sacrificing part of their treasure or by performing special tasks, or they would lose part of their clerical powers. Repeated transgressions would earn them the loss of all their clerical abilities, a merciful punishment compared to how other gods, such as Urios, punished their failed clerics.

Clerics of Aryio typically learned his teachings at the foot of a treant, usually an ancient one as old as time. Teacher and student often traveled to see the effects of injustice and cruelty firsthand. Aryio's wanderings gave rise to many bard tales about an unassuming old man with canaries who helped people on the roads that were well known among his faithful, and many of his human and demihuman priests undertook pilgrimages in the company of trained canaries, seeking to emulate their god.